FIRST TIME BUYERS’ GUIDE TO HOME INSURANCE

David Joyson

Written by

David Joyson

Home Insurance Expert & Customer Champion

Emily Young

Reviewed by

Emily Young

Content & Digital Marketing Executive

Less than 1 minute

Updated: 3 Feb 2025

Making sense of home insurance

Buying a home for the first time can be very confusing. You’ll need to research into saving for a house, how much deposit to pay, first time buyer mortgages, moving house checklists, stamp duty, and more. It can feel overwhelming with all the available options and the technical jargon.  

We’ve prepared a quick, easy-to-read guide for the home insurance part of your exciting journey. We hope this helps make things a little easier. 

Different types of cover 

Before you buy a home insurance policy for your first home, you’ll need to know what type of cover you need. This will generally be one of three options: 

Buildings insurance  

This covers the structure of the property, the walls, roof, windows, doors, service pipes, gates, flooring and any fixed fixtures such as kitchen cupboards and the bathroom suite. 

Most first-time buyers have to take out a mortgage to buy the property. Mortgage lenders require you to buy buildings insurance, to protect their investment. 

Contents insurance  

This covers your belongings; the things you would take with you when you move home. One way to think of this is if you tipped the house upside down, whatever falls out is classed as contents. 

For some insurers, cover outside (but within the boundary) of the home is an add-on, sometimes referred to as “garden cover”, but it comes as standard with a Homeprotect Contents or Combined policy. If you regularly take your laptop, bicycle or any other valuables away from the home, for example to your place of work or days out, then you may want to purchase “personal possessions” cover as part of your contents insurance. 

Combined Buildings and Contents Insurance 

You can buy buildings and contents insurance separately, but in practice most people buy a combined buildings and contents policy as it’s usually less expensive to buy combined; and if you need to make a claim, you’d only have one insurer to deal with, which can make things simpler. 

Choosing the right cover amount for you 

When you are choosing the right cover amount, it’s important to consider the following: 

  • High-value items – Expensive items like jewellery and electronics may need to be individually listed on your policy (“specified”) and sometimes require additional coverage.  
  • Contents sums insured – Your Policy Document details the maximum amount of money you could receive in the event of an incident related to your contents cover, specified items, and personal possessions, called an Insured Loss.  

For more information on key insurance terms that may need more explanation, please visit our Home Insurance Glossary

Additional cover options 

Accidental damage cover 

As it sounds, this cover will protect you if you accidentally damage the building or your contents.  

Please be aware that pet damage is NOT included for Homeprotect policies. 

More about accidental damage cover  

Home emergency cover 

As first-time buyers, something going wrong at home may be daunting to start with. You’ll want something in place to help you cope with emergencies. For example, if the only toilet in your new home stops working, or the main heating system develops a fault you’ll be able to use home emergency insurance to pay for emergency repairs whilst you arrange for a full fix to be put in place. 

It’s worth noting that some home insurance policies come with Basic Home Emergency cover as standard, with the option to upgrade to give you cover for more types of home emergencies. 

All Homeprotect policies come with our Basic Home Emergency as standard. We also have an upgrade option, Full Home Emergency, which extends the type of home emergencies you can claim for. 

More about home emergency cover 

This cover provides you and your family with access to telephone legal advice, along with insurance cover for legal costs and expenses should you experience legal problems. 

More about legal expenses insurance 

Lost keys cover 

Key Protection is an additional cover option you can purchase when you buy a Homeprotect Buildings or Contents insurance policy. It provides cover should your keys be lost, stolen or broken. Cover is provided for any vehicle, home or office keys (including security safe keys and any immobiliser, infrared handset and/or alarm which is integral to any insured key if it cannot be repaired or reprogrammed) up to £1500 sums insured per year. 

More about lost keys cover 

Typical exclusions 

If you’re in a flood prone area, while you might not necessarily have to buy a specific type of policy, you may find it harder to be accepted by a home insurance provider and may face higher costs. However, Homeprotect can usually still cover your home and belongings with our buildings policy, often with flood cover included.  

More about flood risk insurance 

Subsidence is when a building’s foundations begin to sink deeper due to downward movement in the ground. Subsidence insurance premiums are calculated based on risk using factors such as property value and subsidence history. 

More about subsidence 

In any case, remember to read the fine print. Review your policy carefully to understand what’s not covered, so you’re not caught off-guard if you ever need to make a claim.  

Things to note 

Bicycles 

According to the Office for National Statistics, an average of 77,313 bicycles are reported stolen in the UK every year. If it happens to you, you want to know that you’ll be able to make a claim and buy a new bicycle quickly. Insuring your bicycle is straight forward: just tell your insurer the make, model and value to buy new. You should always make sure you lock your bike to a solid, immovable object with a good quality lock, ideally one with a ‘Sold Secure Diamond’ rating. The Police also recommend registering your bike with bikeregister.com and immobilise.com, so that if it is stolen there’s a higher chance of it being recovered quickly. 

More about bicycle insurance 

Outbuildings, garages and sheds 

If you are going to buy a property with an outbuilding of any kind, you’ll need to check that the policy covers rebuilding the outbuilding if it was destroyed. Also be sure to calculate the value of your belongings kept in the outbuildings. We cover up to £1.5k for contents in outbuildings as standard, but can provide more cover if needed 

Public liability 

If someone is injured or worse, dies at your property; or if their belongings are damaged in your home because of something that happens to the property then public liability insurance will help you cover the cost of being sued. 

Key terms 

New for old 

New for old is a term used in contents insurance policies which means that in most cases any items damaged, lost or stolen will be replaced by offering you the value of new versions of those items at today’s prices. 

High-risk items 

High risks items are often valuable and therefore a common target for potential burglars, including jewellery, watches, artwork etc. With a Homeprotect policy, items worth less than £1.5k each are covered as standard inside the home (up to £5k in aggregate).  

You will need to know the valuation of the items to ensure they are properly covered. For example: if an item is valued £1.5k+, it needs to be specified on your policy. It’s also a good idea to take photographs of your valuables which could help the police recover your goods if they were taken in a burglary. 

More about insuring your high risk items 

Our top tips 

Compare quotes from multiple insurers 

Online price comparison sites are a popular tool. It’s also important to pick an insurer with good reviews for customer services and claims. 

Where to go for advice 

Don’t be ashamed to ask for help. You can contact us or use independent advisors who can provide quotes from multiple insurance and offer impartial advice for navigating your options. 

Review your policy annually 

Home valuations fluctuate and your possessions change. Revisiting your policy every year and making the necessary changes will ensure you have sufficient coverage.